We have 77 camps just like this up and running all over the nation. Hundreds of kids attend each. And a majority of those kids aren’t attached to a church community when they sign up for camp—but by the end of the week, they know they have a friend at church. They know they won’t be alone if they decide to return.
That one week of camp connects them to a church community for the remaining 51 weeks of the year. It embeds kids and families in rich, supportive social networks that will continue to love them as friends and neighbors for as long as they choose to remain.
And out of the abundance of grace and love present in a growing community through those churches will come more love, more grace, more friendship.
This is, after all, the heart of the parable of the Good Samaritan. It’s not a heavy-handed obligation to be charitable when it is required of you by circumstance or accident, but a loving invitation into the life of an ever-growing circle of people God gives you as neighbors.
If you want to love your neighbor, you must first go find them. You don’t have to go across the world to bear witness to God’s love or minister to those in need. Start close to home, and take the love of God with you wherever you go.
